A disc brake assembly, such as an air disc brake used in heavy vehicle applications, traditionally includes an axial torque plate mounting configuration. In this configuration, a torque plate is mounted to an axle housing and the air disc brake is mounted to the torque plate at an attachment interface. The traditional attachment interface comprises mounting bolt axes that extend parallel to a lateral axis defined by the axle housing.
One disadvantage with this traditional arrangement is that it is difficult to properly tighten the mounting bolts due to the limited space available for tooling access. Certain axle and/or suspension configurations simply do no provide enough access area for axial installation of mounting bolts.
One proposed solution has been to provide a configuration where the mounting bolts are orientated perpendicularly to the lateral axis defined by the axle housing. This type of mounting configuration is often referred to as a “radial” mount configuration. The use of this type of mounting configuration solves access space problems for mounting purposes, but has presented new challenges. For example, this mounting configuration presents difficulties for mounting the torque plate to the axle housing. In order for a torque plate to be welded to a tubular axle, the torque plate must be made of steel. As such, torque plates for radial configurations are either steel forgings or castings and therefore are relatively heavy and are expensive to manufacture.
Thus, there is a need for a lightweight radial torque plate configuration that provides sufficient structural rigidity, and which can be welded to an axle with minimal difficulty.